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Niles
Niles Layken Styne (no neé) is a primary character in Nightmares. He is the husband of Fiona and father to two children, Vexen and Varian. The "V" twins are technically triplets, due Fiona having had three children. However, the third child was miscarried and is therefore not "legally" in existence. Niles is later revealed in Short Histories to have a complicated family history: his mother, Elsa, was turned into a Wererat as part of a failed experiment/execution by the Wellen Institute. She was briefly feral and killed all the staff before somehow winding up in Hamelin and having Niles with an unknown Rat. Due to his father being a character in The Pied Piper, Niles is half-Fairytale. Later on, he discovers he has a long lost brother, who wound up dropping bombshells about the entire Styne family. Appearance For more information, go to Niles/Appearance Personality Niles is a Rat who is descended from one of Hamelin's own. Due to the fact that both his parents were afflicted, he has great anger towards his family line for "cursing" him, and as a result, despises himself for what he must live with. During his introduction story, Niles was only seen as being depressed enough to try and end his life by drowning (due to the story in Hamelin, all Rats born there cannot swim) as a way of eliminating any chance of Rathood. It would have been easy, to him, as before the births of the twins, Niles was the only Rat of Magnolia. Fiona was the only one able to convince him that Rathood did not define his character, and he wasn't willing to accept it until much later. Niles, due to Rathood, is somewhat equipped with an unstable emotion set and can very easily get angered over minor things. He is not mentally ill, but Rathood has made him nervous. Much to his embarrassment, Fiona is often a witness to his shifting. Even though they take only two seconds (unlike in stories), they are indescribably painful due to the speed. However, Niles has also said that the only reason Rats can't actually feel it is because the entire shift temporarily knocks them unconscious, and the "pain" in this case is a horrid burning that feels like a whole-body fever. If Niles could cure himself, he would, but doing so would most likely kill him outright. Powers and Skills For more information, go to Niles/Abilities Powers *'Shape-shifting' - Niles is able to take on the form of a bipedal rat-like monster, though each shift is not entirely of his own volition. The shift sometimes comes when it chooses to, and each one is incredibly painful, even causing very brief unconsciousness. The human mind is pushed back during this process, and any figment that remains does not have enough power to maintain full control. Niles compares it as being "in a horse-drawn carriage, but someone else has the reins." (Note: Niles eventually learns to resist a shift and stay human, at the cost of developing simultaneous haemolacria, nosebleeds, and other orfices or capillaries to burst from instability.) Eventually, Niles gains the ability to retain his intelligence and frame of mind when shifted due to the silver finally leaving his system. **'Strength and Durability' - Niles is able to attack others with great force, and in addition, has clawed fingertips that can cause deep gashing scratches. Stamina also applies to this category, with the current idea being that he lasts much longer in fights. The stamina boost also applies to his human state, though to a lesser degree. While defending himself from vagrants during his younger years, it was described that Niles "barely seemed to tire" as his attackers were panting for breath. **'Enhanced Speed' - Niles, while not inhumanly fast, can outrun most humans while in his regular state. In the transformed state, he can outrun male stags and possibly wildcats. *'Delayed Aging' - Due to the fact that Rats and Wolves alike have longer lifespans, they age slower. As a Rat, Niles is an example. He appears to be twenty-eight or thirty-seven, but his true age isn't known. Because the story of The Pied Piper takes place in the year 1284 (allegedly), this would make Niles' true age be near the 600's range. Niles is also descended from Fairytales, who are semi-ageless and don't die unless their story is destroyed. It's also possible, however, that the timeline of the series is closer-knit than it claims, which could imply that The Pied Piper is a recent event. This seems to be the likely answer to ensure that characters aren't 1000+. **'Healing' - Niles, alongside many others, has an enhanced healing factor that causes him to regenerate wounds or recover from illnesses at a more advanced level than normal humans. Scratches and slashes heal the moment they occur without leaving a scar, deep injuries heal within minutes, and bone fractures within hours. Limbs themselves may possibly regrow, but it's not a proven point. Weaknesses *'Moonlight' - While it remains true that moonlight enhances the abilities of Werecreatures, it is a huge disadvantage at the same time. Moonlight increases one's adrenaline, which is the reason for strength but also the likelihood an unintentional shift will occur: the chance of it being a mindless one is even greater. Moonlight also decreases one's health during that time and prevents a reversion until the very moment of sunrise. For Niles, this is somewhat countered if Fiona uses her Charm to temper his anxiety: he won't be able to revert or resist a shift, but his human memories of his family would remain so that he would see them as packmates and wouldn't attack them. *'Silver' - Niles has commented several times that he can't touch silver, or the affected skin would burn through. Silver wouldn't kill him, but the chemical properties within it would cause damage and greatly inhibit his abilities. Not only would it stop a shift in its tracks or revert him immediately, but Niles' healing factor would also halt until it was entirely out of his system, or if it was removed from the affected area. Later, it's revealed the instability he suffered during his younger years was caused by a silver bullet that was shot at him by accident--it had apparently not left his system completely nor correctly, which was the reason he shifted randomly and no longer of his free will. *'Food' - Niles shares weaknesses that common houserats have due to being descended from them. He has confided in a few friends that he can't digest lemons or sweets. *'Emotions' - Niles and Nixon are stated to have inherited the worst of their father's temper and emotional control, with Niles being more affected than Nixon. Nixon has better coping mechanisms, such as stopping to think about consequences and constantly drinking chamomile tea. *'The Pipe of Prance' - As with all Rats, Niles is put in a semi-hypnotic state upon hearing the music the pipe creates. The sensations it creates are just described as "shaking," but in reality, it's the same as having an out-of-body experience. It's not clear if this weakness remains, as he suffered from it at the age of six when he still lived in Hamelin. **'Rat Charm' - Because Fiona is the daughter of the Piper, she inherited his Rat Charm, which is an ability to control Rats: it was the reason the Piper could play the pipe. While Fiona's is hybridized and not pure (making her unable to play the pipe at all), it remains strong with seducing and sometimes charming Rats. Skills *'Gun-Wielding' - Niles is proficient with revolvers and rifles, but he does not have a specific preference. He keeps a revolver in his coat pocket at all times that has been modified to shoot rapidly. *'Bilinguality' - As an original citizen of Hamelin, Niles is fluent in the German language and can speak it without trouble. It's not mentioned exactly if he retains an accent, but there are words he mispronounces or spells incorrectly (based on how he thinks it's spelled/heard), so it's hinted he does have one, even if it's slight. For instances when Niles or other characters speak different languages, go to Clarification: Bilingual Moments History For more information, go to Niles/History Relationships For more information, go to Niles/Relationships Trivia For more information, go to Niles/Trivia *If Nightmares ever became a live-action series, Niles would preferably be portrayed by Ryan Gosling or Jake Gyllenhaal, on the condition their hair was dyed brown and that they wore grey contact lenses. *Niles does not sleep at night, and any sleep he does get is sparse and unrestful. *Niles is bisexual, as seen in one of his conversations with his wife during their introduction story. When he makes a comment about an ex-lover, Niles refers to the lover as a "he." *Niles, in many of his narrations, sometimes has italic text accompanied after his speech that doesn't have a definitive source. This is in fact, as Edgar had diagnosed, a phenomenon known as Beast Thought, which is the inner thoughts of the affected person's feral instincts in their shifted form. Technically, Niles is talking to himself, but in a sense, he isn't, as the feral instincts themselves come from a repressed aspect of their personality that acts as its own person. *Niles and Nixon each have an accent, but only because they grew up in different parts of the world: Niles in Hamelin, and Nixon in the Shire. As a result, Niles' accent is German, while Nixon's is fully British--although he attempts to resist it. *Niles takes his relationship with Fiona very seriously. If she died, he would become depressed and would eventually vegetize. If Niles was responsible for Fiona's death, he would end his life as well, as she was the only reason he didn't drown himself in the first place. Gallery For pictures, go to Niles/Gallery Category:Characters Category:Male Category:Wererats Category:Benevolent Category:Primary Characters Category:Bisexual Category:Styne Family Category:Fairytales